Eat Your Heart Out
by SunSingularity
Summary: This story is an entry for the CSI Forever Online 'How Should It All End' challenge. The entire team is reunited when they find more victims of a killer they think is already dead and with the most recent victim killed in the last 24 hours, the CSIs must work together to lure the killer out of hiding before he strikes again.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This fic is an entry for the CSIFO challenge, "How Should It All End." I hope I do the series justice! For those of you who have read my other two stories, you'll know that I don't have as much experience writing CSI with a focus on other characters besides Greg and Morgan since they are my favorite. This fic tries to focus not only on the case they have to solve, but on each of the characters in a fairly equal manner. To be honest, I've avoided writing Grissom into anything because it's difficult for me to get into his head and treat his character as it should. The point of this is to attempt a fic that could actually be an episode of the show. Anyway, on with the story…**

Chapter 1

*4 months after the events of _The End Game_ *

Sara and Finn stood just outside of the abandoned industrial complex, waiting for the police to clear the scene. D.B. had tried to convince Finn to take it slow when she'd awoken from her coma three months ago, but she wouldn't have it.

A month after waking up, she was back at work and processing scenes as if nothing had gone wrong. Sara hadn't known Finn nearly as long as Warrick, but for the month that Finn was in a coma, she and everyone else in the Las Vegas Crime Lab had walked on eggshells, hoping that Finn would recover and she had, thankfully with minimal memory of the trauma she went through.

"Scene's clear!" Officers called out, letting Finn and Sara through the barricades. They entered the building and moved to the back room, where the person who called it in said they'd seen it. David trailed behind them. When they opened the door and shone their lights on the scene, Finn whistled.

"Uhh, well I don't know how much help I'd be in this case." David said, frowning at the scene before them.

"I'm not an expert in mummies." Sara said. "But I know someone who might be."

~XXXXX~

The only reason Gil returned to the States was because he'd received a phone call from Catherine. She wanted his help consulting on a case regarding a serial killer. The time of death for each victim was in question and they wanted him to use "his bugs" as Catherine said, to prove the suspect in custody had no alibi during the murders.

After that case ended, he decided to stay awhile. The FBI appreciated his efforts to help them, and they paid him well as an entomological consultant on cases where his forensic expertise was required. He was sitting in a lab, studying blow flies on a different case when Catherine appeared in the doorway.

"Ahem." She coughed to get his attention.

"Catherine. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Actually, it's because I got a call from someone. Care to guess who?"

"The ghost of Christmas past?" Gil guessed.

"Close... Sara Sidle in Las Vegas. They need our help on a case. You want in on it?"

Gil looked up at Catherine. She was grinning.

"What kind of case?"

"Mummified corpses. Multiple mummified corpses." Catherine said. Gil arched an eyebrow.

"All with missing hearts." She added.

"Now… that's a case I could get into." Gil said with a smirk.

~XXXXX~

"You called Catherine?" Finn asked, sounding confused. She had never met Catherine, but she knew who she was based on Sara, Nick and Greg's conversations about them.

"I called Catherine because she said that Gil is with the FBI lab doing consulting work. This is a case he'd like to work on." Sara said. Dave had taken the corpses back to the city morgue, but was unable to rule a cause of death due to the fact that they all had vital organs missing. He estimated that they'd been in the abandoned industrial building for upwards of a year.

They stood over the photos from the scene as well as the close ups that Finn had taken during autopsy for each victim.

"So, this has nothing to do with the fact that he's your ex-husband, right?" Finn said.

"Of course _not._ " Sara replied, "Look at this." She pointed out a photo they'd taken of strange wounds on the leg of each corpse.

"What does this look like to you?" Sara asked. Finn studied the photo. The wound was rectangular in shape and had strange edge marks.

"It looks familiar, but I…don't know if I should say it out loud." Finn said. She pointed at the trace they'd found in the wound.

"Do we know what this is yet?" She asked Sara.

"Hodges is working it right now. I'll go see what's he's got." Sara said, leaving to room.

~XXXXX~

"This house would be perfect if this were a horror movie." Morgan said, staring up at the abandoned Victorian home that she and Greg had been called out to for their scene. The windows on the lower floors were boarded up and the ones on the upper floors were either cracked or broken. Paint peeled off of the sides of the house and the trim. The yard was mostly dirt and clumps of dead grass. A rusted out "No Trespassing" sign sat on the broken concrete of the walkway leading up to the door.

"Except you wouldn't know if this were a horror movie." Greg said as they climbed the creaking stairs to the front door.

"Only if it were a good horror movie. I wouldn't be dumb enough to open the door to the spooky house and call out, 'hello' like they always do." Morgan replied. The door was already open and crime scene tape had been taped across the middle. They ducked under the tape, one at a time, to enter.

"Yeah, I always wondered why they did that. It's not like you really want something to answer and if it does… what would they do then?" Greg asked.

"Scream and be generally useless." Morgan replied.

"Hey guys. Gotta strange one here." Doc Robbins said, standing in what must have been the kitchen as some point in the house's history. A dead man lay sprawled on the floor. A massive blood pool sat several feet away near the entrance to the dining room and distinct drag marks made in blood put the original attack in there before the man was dragged into the kitchen.

"Strange? How?" Morgan asked. Greg moved towards the entrance of the dining room to take pictures of the blood trail, but he listened to Morgan and Doc Robbins's conversation.

"I can't determine his time of death."

"What?"

Greg looked up. The doctor was frowning down at the corpse.

"Why not?" Greg asked.

"He has no liver." He said. He lifted the man's t-shirt to reveal the source of the blood pool. The man had been sliced open in a traditional autopsy Y formation and stitched back together by someone who did not seem to have much experience with stitching.

"I felt along where it should be, but it's not there. I could give you a general timeline based on lividity and rigor." He offered.

"Sure, we'll go with that." Morgan said.

"Well, lividity is fixed and he's come out of rigor, so I'd put his time of death at least 24 hours ago."

"Okay, thanks Doc." Greg said.

"No wallet, no keys, nothing in his pockets."

Greg came over to look at the corpse. Something wasn't quite right about it, other than the obvious.

"Morgan, what's wrong with this picture?" Greg asked. She looked around and then back at the man. She leaned forward and studied him closely.

"He bleached his hair recently, he only has about a millimeter of growth." Morgan said, pointing at his hair. Morgan looked around and stared at his hands.

"He's had a manicure recently." She said, lifting his hands to show Greg his nails.

"Expensive bridge work, too. Look." Doc Robbins said, opening his mouth and showing them his teeth.

Greg frowned. "So, what's a guy who goes to the salon to dye his hair and gets manicures and expensive dental work doing in _this_ neighborhood? In this house?"

Morgan sighed. "Maybe he met someone here? I guess that's going to be the question we need to answer, right?"

"I ran his prints, he's not in the system. No criminal history or gaming card." The doctor said.

Once they'd taken their fill of pictures, Robbins put the body in a bag and took him back to the morgue. When he left, Morgan turned to Greg.

"Who would want to steal someone's liver?"

"Who steal someone's liver and then goes to the trouble of sewing him back up afterwards?" Greg countered.

"You know what I said earlier about this house being perfect for a horror movie? There's only one horror movie I know of that has a character who likes liver." Morgan said.

Greg grimaced. "Let's just hope he has the rest of his internal organs, then."

~XXXXX~

Gil and Catherine took a flight directly to Vegas that evening at the FBI's expense. They went directly from the airport to the Crime Lab. Ecklie was there to greet them.

"Long time no see you two." He said. Ecklie and Catherine hugged.

"Indeed." Grissom said as they walked into the lab. It had been years since he'd been inside and they had updated everything. He looked around for familiar faces.

"It looks nice." He said. Catherine nodded in agreement. Grissom didn't know how he felt about seeing Sara again. They hadn't seen each other in person in years when they divorced. He'd thought about coming back to Vegas, but never had a good enough reason for it. Then he became preoccupied with the FBI lab and that took up most of his time. In fact, he was quite certain that unless he had some pressing work matter, he may have never returned to Vegas.

Seeing the lab again was nice, though. It was fascinating how much it had changed over the years. They immediately went to the supervisor's office. A man with white hair sat behind a desk, frowning at his computer screen, tapping his fingers.

"D.B." Catherine called. He looked up and a smile spread over his face. He stood to greet them, shaking Catherine's hand and allowing himself to be introduced to Grissom for the first time. Grissom looked around the office curiously.

"Mushrooms." He stated, moving towards one of the tanks to observe them closely.

"Yes, I'm a bit of a mycologist." D.B. said. Grissom smiled.

"Well, I hear you have three mummies on your hands, Russell. They were found earlier this evening in an abandoned industrial complex?" Catherine asked.

"Yes, they were. I sent the case files to you via email about fifteen minutes ago so that you can go over it. Sara and Finn processed the scene and Dave has listed the deaths as unknown origin." D.B. said. A knock came at the door and they turned to see Finn standing in the doorway. She smiled.

"Ah. Catherine and Gil, this is CSI Finlay. She goes by Finn."

"Nice to meet you two." She said cheerfully, shaking their hands.

"Hodges got back to us with the trace on the wounds we found on each of the victim's legs. It's…troubling." She said.

"What's troubling about it?" Gil asked, more curious than ever. Finn looked at Ecklie and then at D.B. before directing her answer to Gil.

"It was olive oil, sage and sea salt." She said finally. D.B. frowned and Ecklie's eyes narrowed.

"You found this on each of the mummies?"

"Yes. They had very distinct wounds on their legs and arms. Rectangular, about six square inches for each one. The edges indicate a serrated knife." Catherine watched Ecklie's shoulders go tense and D.B. press his lips together.

"Is this an M.O. you're familiar with?" She asked out loud.

"Yes." Ecklie interrupted, pulling out his phone. "The M.O. of a guy who's dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Your guy here died of exsanguination, but I'm sure that's no surprise given how much blood you documented at the scene." Doc Robbins said in autopsy to Greg and Morgan.

"Are there any other organs missing?" Morgan asked.

"Actually yes. The heart and the kidneys are missing as well. He's also missing some skin." Doc Robbins said, pointing at his leg and arms. He had a one rectangular shaped wound on each arm and one on his left leg with trace materials around the edges. Greg collected samples of the trace. He frowned at the patterns.

"No defensive wounds, which means was out when he was sliced. I sent blood and hair to tox to check what was used to knock him out." Doc Robbins said.

"Do you know who he is?" Greg asked.

"Dental records confirm his identity as Chad Burns, 32 from Vegas." Doc said.

"Thanks!" Morgan said as they removed their gloves.

"No problem." They left the morgue and returned to the lab, delivering their trace to Hodges who was rushing around excitedly.

"What's got your underwear all in a twist?" Greg asked. Hodges rolled his eyes and Morgan smirked.

"Didn't you hear?" Hodges hissed.

"Hear what?" Morgan whispered, looking around.

"Catherine and Grissom are _here_. In the lab, right now! They're having a private meeting with Ecklie and D.B about Finn and Sara's mummy case." Hodges replied.

Greg's mouth fell open in surprise. "I haven't seen Grissom in six years!"

"Yeah, me either. You think it'll be awkward between him and Sara since they're divorced?" Hodges asked. Morgan felt slightly left out. She'd never met Grissom, although she vaguely remembered her dad's complaints about work when she was younger.

"No, it won't be awkward because Sara is a professional. Is there anything you can tell us about our case?" Morgan asked, interrupting the conversation.

"Yeah, well I'll process your trace, but the mummies have gotten everyone in a tizzy. Did you know that they were missing organs? Dave said he couldn't definitively determine cause of death since there weren't any other serious injuries to the skeletons or the tissue." Hodges said knowingly.

Morgan perked up at this and elbowed Greg who was still reeling from the idea that Grissom had returned with Catherine!

"Greg, were you listening just now?"

"Huh? No, sorry. What?"

"The mummies. Sara and Finn's mummies were missing vital organs!" Greg frowned.

"Why didn't the Doc tell us about it?"

"Dave worked on the mummies. I guess Doc Robbins hasn't seen them yet. He's been busy processing more recently deceased bodies. " Morgan replied.

"Yeah, I guess. Let's go find Finn and Sara." Greg said.

~XXXXX~

Finn and Sara knew that Grissom and Catherine had arrived, but they were in a closed door meeting with D.B. and Ecklie. Finn had interrupted the meeting to update them on the case and Ecklie had promptly ushered her from the room to talk with D.B., Catherine and Gil in private. In the meantime, they worked to identify the other bodies using dental records, DNA and rehydrated fingerprints. So far, they'd had luck only one of them.

Greg and Morgan appeared in the doorway as Sara and Finn were reviewing the dental records of the other two mummies.

"So, I hear your missing some parts." Greg said. Finn and Sara looked up at the same time. Sara smiled.

"Yes we are. Are you here to help?"

"Actually, we're here to find out which of the parts are missing." Morgan said.

"Why?" Finn wondered.

"Well…we responded to a scene earlier and our guy had some missing organs. It made it difficult for Doc Robbins to get a fixed time of death." Greg said. Sara and Finn exchanged a glance.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours, Sanders." Finn said with a playful smile. Greg chuckled and showed them the autopsy photos of their victim, Chad Burns. Finn and Sara poured over them, noting the rectangular wounds.

"Which organs were missing?" Sara asked.

"Liver, heart and kidneys." Morgan said.

"And we know that the blade used to make those wounds was serrated, like a steak knife. This whole thing is beginning to be uncomfortably familiar." Greg said. They all looked at one another nervously.

"Don't tell me I'm not the only one who immediately jumped to the Eater conclusion." Greg said.

"No…you aren't." Finn said, nodding at Sara. She showed Greg and Morgan a print out of the confirmed fingerprints on one of their mummies.

"Guess who one of the mummies was?" Sara asked.

"Who?"

"Owen Linder."

~XXXXX~

"So we're looking for a copy-cat or an apprentice of the original." Grissom said. Ecklie was pacing the room.

"Well, the issue with that theory is that there was no physical evidence of the suspect at any of the scenes. Ever." D.B. said. Ecklie shot him a dirty look.

"Todd Burris was the Las Vegas Cannibal. There is no other story." Ecklie said sternly. Catherine raised an eyebrow and moved to stand in between Ecklie and D.B.

"Calm down. We have to run through all the possibilities to get at the truth, right? You know that, Ecklie. Let us do our jobs and find the guy." Catherine stared him down. Ecklie threw his hands in the air and huffed angrily.

"Do what you need to do, but I don't want to hear any press on this, you understand? This stays completely silent until we _know_." He opened the door and left abruptly, slamming it behind him.

"So, brief us on this Todd Burris case." Catherine said, ignoring Ecklie's outburst. D.B. sat down with a sigh and pulled up the file on his computer. He showed them the photos, the evidence they gathered and the photographs from each scene. He summarized the case for them while they looked through the files and processed evidence.

"It was all part of a fetish community called Vore, short for vorarephilia. The people that we talked to weren't actually consuming human flesh, they considered the whole thing to be an elaborate role-play set up. Todd Burris was a security guard who came into the police department, claiming to have captured the cannibal after they released his sketch to the public." D.B. showed them the sketch.

"All we found in Todd's car was a dismembered hand in a pair of handcuffs and blood everywhere. The hand and the blood were never tested because Todd Burris died of cyanide poisoning while in police custody. He had a watch from one victim in his pocket and a piece of clothing from another; those were the only items we found connecting him to any of the victims. We couldn't connect him to the scene of any of the crimes that took place and Ecklie decided to prematurely release a public statement announcing that the suspect had died in police custody." D.B. explained. Catherine whistled as she stared at the sketch.

"This guy'll give you nightmares." She muttered. Grissom was studying the evidence from the previous cases.

"So, you say that the previous victims were stabbed with this knife. At some point he took slices of flesh from them to consume. As I understand it from these new cases, the victims have slices of flesh missing as well as several internal organs. That doesn't match the original killer."

"Well, the original killer was motivated by anger. He used to have a relationship with a man named Gary Korlov. Gary would have pieces of his flesh surgically removed and he would watch Eater consume them. Gary is the one who provided the details for our sketch. He ended his relationship with Eater when a woman named Brenda Waring, who called herself Miss Feed, satisfied his urge to be consumed by using a snuff film." D.B. said.

"Snuff film? For people who want to consume flesh or to have their flesh consumed? How does that work?" Grissom asked.

"Endoscopic camera down the throat. She and her cameraman were murdered in the middle of a session. We think that Eater became enraged when he lost his meal ticket, so to speak, and lashed out. The other victim, Owen Linder, wasn't killed. He was taken willingly by Eater, but based on the statement he gave Greg and Nick at the time, he misunderstood Eater's intentions. He thought it would be a role-play situation, but Eater sliced a piece of skin from his leg and he ate it. Owen escaped. We haven't had any cases that match this M.O. since that time." D.B. said.

"So…why did he stop?" Catherine asked.

"Better yet… why did he start again?" Grissom wondered.

~XXXXX~

"I know that I'm supposed to know who that is, but I don't recognize the name." Morgan said. Greg sighed.

"He made the first report. Nick and I took his statement when he said he was abducted and someone sliced his leg and ate it in front of him. Geez!"

"Have you identified the other two mummies?" Morgan asked.

"No, we were working on that now." Finn said. "How about you tell us about your victim?"

"Chad Burns, he's a 32 year old Vegas local. We haven't dug up much on him yet because we saw the connection between his death and your victims. We found him in an abandoned house near some train tracks, but it was obvious he didn't belong there." Morgan said.

"Why not?" Sara wondered.

"Nice hair, manicured nails, expensive dental work. That's how we identified him. His prints weren't in the system and he had no identification on him."

"One other difference…" Greg noted. "Our victim was stitched back up. All of the mummies had open chest cavities, right?"

"Yes. The abandoned meat processing plant we found them in was not the original scene of the murders, though. We didn't find any blood evidence." Finn said.

"We found plenty of that." Morgan said, pointing at the photo of the blood pool and smears. A knock came at their door and they all looked up to see Hodges.

"Trace evidence from Sara and Finn's mummies match Chad Burns. Olive oil, sage and salt in the rectangular wounds. Same trace as on Dennis Hagel and Miss Feed from the original case." Hodges said, showing them the reports.

"Well it's official. Our cases are connected." Sara said.

"Excuse me." They all looked up. Hodges moved out of the doorway to see D.B. standing there.

"I believe there are two people who would like to help out." He said, backing away enough for Greg, Morgan, Finn, Sara and Hodges to see Catherine and Grissom standing in the hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! On with the story…**

Chapter 3

Catherine hugged Greg, Morgan and Sara with a smile. Gil wasn't much of a hugging person, but Catherine introduced him to Morgan, whom he'd never met. Greg watched as Hodges stared at Sara to see her reaction to Grissom. She seemed calm, as if this wasn't unusual or strange. She even smiled a little.

"Gil, how are you?" She asked cordially.

"Well, Sara and you?"

"As good as can be expected when you have three mummies on your hands." She replied.

"Before we get started, is there a reason that Greg, Morgan and Hodges are in here?" D.B. asked.

"Well, sir, I confirmed that the trace from the wounds on the mummies were olive oil, sage and sea salt earlier. Greg and Morgan brought me trace from their victim today and he had the same materials on wounds to his arms and leg." Hodges said quickly.

"Your victim had wounds similar to those of the mummies?" Grissom asked.

"Yes, sir. He was also missing several internal organs." Morgan said.

"Call me Grissom." He said, waving away the formality of being called 'sir.' Morgan smiled.

"Which organs?" He asked.

"Liver, kidneys and his heart." Morgan said.

"What about the mummies, what were they missing?" Catherine asked.

"Same parts in each one. We identified the first one based on dental records. He was involved with the case against Todd Burris, his name is Owen Linder." Sara replied. This made D.B., Catherine and Grissom all perk up with interest.

"What about Greg and Morgan's scene today?" Finn prompted. Catherine, D.B. and Gil looked at Greg and Morgan to fill them in. They described the scene, showed them photos of the body and explained what little they knew about the victim.

"We haven't done much digging into him yet because we noticed the missing organs connection and wanted to find out if Sara and Finn had identified any of the mummies." Greg said.

"Okay…" D.B. said slowly, looking at the photos from both scenes. "I think it would be best if we divide and conquer, would you agree?" He looked at Catherine and Gil for confirmation and they both nodded.

"I'll go with Greg and Morgan and we can dig into Chad Burns' life on that end." Catherine volunteered.

"I suppose that means I'm working with Finn and Sara on identifying the bodies. That's what I came for." Gil said. D.B. nodded and Catherine, Greg and Morgan left the room with their evidence and photos to talk to Detective Crawford, who'd been assigned to their case.

"That sounds great. Keep me in the loop!" D.B. said, walking away towards Henry's DNA lab.

Gil stayed behind with Finn and Sara to work on identifying the mummies. Finn had to smile when Gil slowly approached Sara, as if he were testing the limits of a wild animal whose temper he didn't quite know. Years had passed, but he still felt attracted to her, but their history prevented him from acting on it.

"Owen Linder is our first mummy. Any clues to our other two?" Gil asked. He figured if he focused on the case, it would make it easier for Sara, easier for both of them.

"We're rehydrating the fingers in fabric softener to scan for prints." Sara said. "Mandy has them now, we can go check on them." The three of them walked to the fingerprint lab. Mandy gasped and jumped up when she saw Grissom.

"Oh, sir, I heard you'd come back for a case but I didn't know if it was true or not. It's good to see you!" She smiled. Grissom nodded.

"Thank you, Mandy. Do you have anything on the rehydrated fingers?"

"I do, actually. On both sets! You got lucky with these other two." She handed them copies of the fingerprint match.

"Your second mummy was Colleen Waring. Her prints were in the system when she was busted for meth a couple of years back." Mandy said. Sara frowned down at the picture.

"Waring?"

"Yeah, why? Is that important?" Mandy asked.

"Yes. Miss Feed's real name was Brenda Waring, she had a sister who was caught using her credit cards after we found her. We thought the killer had taken them at the time and picked her up, but she'd never been involved." Sara said slowly.

"So was Colleen her sister's name?" Finn asked.

"I can't remember, but I'll check." Sara said.

"What about the identity of the other mummy?" Gil asked.

"Yes, that one was a man named Justin Burns. His prints were in the system because of a gaming card, he used to work at the Eclipse." Mandy said, handing them his information.

"Burns." Grissom said out loud, studying the information. Finn leaned over to look and Gil looked up at her in surprise.

"Wonder if he's related to Chad Burns. That's a huge coincidence if he isn't." She said.

"There's no such thing as coincidences." Gil said.

~XXXXX~

Catherine, Morgan and Greg went to Chad Burns' house to examine his life. Everything was very neat and precise.

"Geez, this place looks like one of those model homes people don't actually live in." Catherine said, eyeballing the surface of a coffee table that had no dust on it.

"Yeah, it's a little weird." Morgan agreed. "Come look at his books." Greg had gone to examine other parts of the house.

"What's special about them?" Catherine asked.

"They're all about anatomy and physiology. Stuff about the amazing strength of the human body. Look at this one, 'Twisted Facts about the Human Form.' He's really interested in body parts." Morgan said. Catherine smirked.

"Guess that's what got him killed." She said.

"Hey guys? Come look at this!" Greg said from the other room. They followed his voice into a room that looked like a home office. He was sitting in the chair at the computer.

"What did you find?" Morgan asked eagerly. They both stood behind him, looking over his shoulder.

"Chad Burns has been visiting the same Vore sites and message boards that Owen Linder, Eater and the other vorarephilia community have been frequenting." Greg showed them his browsing history.

"But I don't think he was a member of the fetish community, I think he was doing research." Greg continued, pulling up his list of favorite sites and bookmarks and scanning through them.

"Research for what?" Catherine asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but he has an account to the Vore site that Owen Linder liked to frequent. If I pull it up, he's already logged in. His username is BurningMan. I guess his attempt to be clever…"Greg said, scrolling through his postings.

"That's kind of insensitive Greg." Morgan hissed. Greg smirked at her and she swatted his shoulder.

"What was he posting about?" Catherine asked.

"He was asking around about a user who called himself choice_meat." Greg made a face and Catherine rolled her eyes.

"Did he get any responses?" Morgan asked.

"A few…here, I'll show you." He pulled up Chad's private messages to show a full inbox of responses. Some were just creepy poetry involving being eaten, but Greg clicked on one from a user called Dr. Lecter.

"Read _that_." He said. The message was very short. It simply read. "He is gone. I ate him. You'll never find his corpse."

"We need to track the ISP for that guy and find out who he really is." Morgan said.

"You didn't have any luck with that the first time around, though." Catherine reminded her.

"Well, let's get all this man's equipment back to the lab so we can go digging." Catherine said.

~XXXXX~

Sara confirmed that Colleen Waring was Brenda's younger sister. Grissom went to examine the mummified corpses while Sara and Finn went to investigate Justin Burns.

"It looks like I found our other connection. Justin Burns was reported missing almost 8 months ago by his brother, Chad Burns." Finn said, showing the report to Sara. She thumbed through it, reading through the details of Chad's statement.

"So… you and Grissom. Seemed a little tense." Finn said.

"He's obviously only interested in the case. Besides, there's so much water under that bridge that it would be pointless to try and talk to him about it." Sara admitted.

"You sure about that? I'm sure if you asked him he would open up. You saw something in each other once, Sara. Those feelings don't just disappear, even after a divorce. Especially when it was like yours. Believe me, I speak from the experience of multiple divorces." Finn said with a nostalgic sigh. Sara grinned.

"Maybe I'll try talking to him later." She conceded. Finn smiled.

"That's the spirit!"

"Hey, there's a flag on Chad Burns' name when I look his case up in our system." Sara said after typing his information into the computer in front of her. Finn stared over her shoulder as Sara clicked on an addendum at the bottom of the page.

"What's it say?" Finn asked.

"It's a case number, but when I click on it…" Sara clicked on it and a red warning popped up.

"Restricted Access, Security Clearance Needed?" Finn asked. "Maybe we should talk to Catherine. She can get her FBI buddies to unlock this stuff for us."

"Yeah..." Sara said, pulling out her phone to call her.

~XXXXX~

Catherine, Greg and Morgan came back to the lab with all of Chad's computer equipment in tow when Catherine's phone rang.

"Sara? We're back at the lab? Oh." She said. Greg and Morgan exchanged a curious glance.

"Right, we'll be right there." Catherine said. They delivered the computers to Archie's lab and Catherine explained what was going on.

"Security clearance? What for?" Greg asked.

"I will call some people and find out." Catherine said. They came to Finn and Sara's work station, where they gathered around.

"So much for divide and conquer." Finn quipped. Catherine grinned.

"That's the message I get." Sara said, pointing at the warning. Catherine logged into a different database and attempted to access the case number from her FBI account.

"Huh. It says it's a Cyber Crimes file and I need administrative permission to access it." Catherine said.

"Cybercrimes? We know someone who does that…" Finn said. Catherine looked surprised.

"Who?"

"Agent Avery Ryan." A voice said at the door. They turned to stare at D.B. who smiled. Agent Ryan from the FBI Cyber Division stood next to him.

"So I hear you're investigating the murder of one of my informants." She said, her hands on her hips.

~XXXXX~

Grissom and Doc Robbins closely examined the mummified remains of each victim. They found more trace evidence on each mummy and collected it for Hodges to analyze.

"Each of these people have been missing for about a year and all evidence indicates that the place they were found was not where they were kept long term." Grissom said.

"So they were stored elsewhere and recently moved. Why?"

"Hmm. That's something we have yet to figure out. What does this look like to you?" He asked, holding up a sliver of something. The doctor studied it through his bifocals.

"A piece of pine or wood shaving." He said.

"If our killer feasted on the bodies and then stored them for later use… could he have been making…" Grissom trailed off.

"You mean, like human jerky? I suppose that's possible." Doc Robbins said. Grissom's phone rang. He put the trace in a bindle and removed his gloves.

"Grissom."

"We need you at the lab. There's been a development." Catherine said.

"I'll be there." He hung up. "It was good seeing you again doc." He said.

"Always a pleasure, Gil." He took the trace evidence and left the morgue for the lab.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Everyone involved with the case had to be gathered in a large conference room down at the police department to be updated on the situation. Ecklie stood to the side while Agent Ryan and Catherine took the floor.

"You are investigating the deaths of four people. Three of the bodies were found mummified here." Agent Ryan said, indicating a GPS coordinate on a map projected onto a large digital touch screen.

"The other was found in this abandoned house, here." She indicated Greg and Morgan's scene, which was only a mile from the abandoned industrial complex of the first scene.

"The mummified victims at the first scene were Owen Linder, Colleen Waring and Justin Burns. The fourth victim was Chad Burns, who was working with my division in an effort to locate his brother Justin. We suspected Justin of being involved in the Vore community in San Diego for a long time and when he relocated to Vegas a year ago, we continued tracking him." She explained.

"Why were you tracking him?" D.B. asked.

"We suspected him of using his connections in the online Vore community to take advantage of several people. We are fairly certain that he wasn't entirely into the vorarephilia as much as the others were; he appeared to be finding a way in to start a scheme to make money off of their obsessions by selling vorarephilia snuff films at a steep price." Agent Ryan said.

"Then he dropped off our radar. His accounts went inactive and we couldn't trace any of his activities, even in the parts of the web most people don't know about. His brother reported him missing and we recruited him to investigate the Vore community." She explained.

"So, he was a mole. You wanted him to pretend to be vore so that he could discover what happened to Justin." Catherine said.

"Exactly. Only now Chad's dead. Someone in the vore community doesn't like us digging around Justin or the others. This is where your case involving the cannibal comes in." Agent Ryan said, deferring to D.B.

"So you believe that Justin ran afoul of our 'Eater' roughly a year ago because he was selling these snuff films and making the prey less willing to offer themselves up as a meal." He said.

"Uh, may I interject?" Greg said. Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"There is one person who was involved with the previous case that we haven't been able to locate. Gary Korlov? He used to be this Eater's favorite meal until Miss Feed cured him of his compulsion to have skin surgically removed." Greg said.

"Yes. We know his whereabouts." Agent Ryan said.

"Where is he?" Finn asked.

"Nick has him. In San Diego." Agent Ryan said with a smile.

~XXXXX~

Nick had local officers pick up Gary Korlov at his place of business early that morning. Gary recognized him immediately.

"What's this about?" He asked, sitting stiffly in the chair provided in the interrogation room.

"Well, Gary, we have a problem. Remember our friend Eater, aka Todd Burris?" Nick asked. Gary pressed his lips together and said nothing.

"It seems as though my colleagues in Vegas found some of his victims, which is troubling." Nick said. Gary looked up from the table and leaned forward.

"I told you. I tried to tell you that, that man on the autopsy table wasn't the black soul I knew."

Nick sighed. "Be that as it may, you and I are taking a trip back to Vegas for a little reunion with your vore friends."

~XXXXX~

Sara, Finn and Grissom gathered to continue their investigation into each of their victims. They turned their attentions to Owen Linder and Colleen Waring.

"Look at what I found." Finn said, pointing at the computer. Grissom and Sara looked over her shoulder at the screen.

"A support group for former vore members." Sara said.

"Yes, started by Colleen Waring. I guess her sister's death turned her life around. At least for a while, anyway." Finn said.

"Do we have a way to determine who else might have been in on this group?" Grissom asked.

"Good question, let's figure it out…" Finn said. They asked Agent Ryan for her help and she worked her computer magic to track the information of the most frequent visitors of the site by date.

"It looks like your other victim, Owen Linder, was also a member of this group. Justin Burns wasn't a member, but he posted in the support group about his snuff films. I suppose to help those in the group who were having a more difficult time getting past their affiliations. There are a few other members, but they haven't been linked to our case in any way." Agent Ryan said.

"So…Eater murdered Owen Linder, Justin Burns and Colleen Waring because…" Finn trailed off and looked at the others.

"Well, in the past, Eater murdered only when he felt as though his food was being taken away from him. That could be the case here, couldn't it? Colleen Waring was posting messages on the Vore site and luring potential prey away, narrowing the pool for Eater. Owen Linder and Justin Burns were helping her, at least indirectly. That's enough motive for Eater." Grissom said. Agent Ryan smiled at him.

"I like you." Grissom smiled.

"Why thank you."

Sara looked up and locked eyes with Grissom, who arched an eyebrow at her. She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. They hadn't had a chance to be alone and talk since this whole thing started. Everyone was so busy digging up information in the victims and calling in help to other places that Sara felt as though it would be impractical of her to ask Gil for a moment alone.

She didn't even know what she would say to him once they were alone. Did she still have feelings for him? On some level, she always would. It wasn't that they stopped loving one another when they got divorced, it was that they wanted different things. Returning to work as a CSI with a few more years of life under her belt gave her a new perspective on everything. She remembered why she loved it so much, what drew her to the profession in the first place. Grissom felt that same passion about what he was doing in South America.

How could she deny the man she loved the opportunity to pursue his passions for her own ends? Gil hadn't always been very articulate with his feelings in the beginning, but through their marriage he'd improved significantly. She knew that he felt the same way about her and her passion for being a CSI. She hoped that by coming back to Vegas and working on a case with some of the old team would help Gil remember that and consider staying.

~XXXXX~

Nick and Gary Korlov arrived at the police department at shift change. The CSI's from the night shift were sent home to rest up since they'd pulled a double just on the investigations into the three mummies and Chad Burns. While the others were sleeping off their double, Nick used his chance to talk to Gary Korlov further.

"I'm telling you, I got out of the community. Miss Feed cured me of my dangerous compulsion and showed me how to alleviate my urges in a healthy way." Gary insisted.

"So you're trying to tell me that you don't have any contact with anyone in the vore community? You don't talk to them at all." Nick said doubtfully. Detective Crawford was with him in interrogation.

"What about these people, hmm?" Detective Crawford asked, showing Gary pictures of Colleen Waring, Owen Linder and Justin Burns. Gary stared at each photo.

"I recognize this man and this woman." He said, pointing to Owen Linder's photo and Colleen Waring's photo.

"But I have never seen this man before." He said, point at Justin Burns' photography.

"He went by the username choice_meat in the Vegas Vore community forum." Nick said. Gary settled back into his chair and pressed his fingers together, peering over them to stare at him and Detective Crawford.

"Ah, then I am aware of that user. I never met him in person, but I do know that he was peddling snuff films for people like me. People who…have compulsions that are difficult to contain in a healthy, manageable manner." He smiled.

"In what capacity did you know the other two?" Detective Crawford asked.

"I met this man at a gathering of vorarephiles. He seemed quite nice and friendly, he was a prey, like me. This woman…I know that she started some type of group or charity in honor of her sister, Miss Feed. A lot of the vore community members donated to her cause and felt compelled to join her group after the whole debacle with Eater. They were afraid of their fetish coming out of the pantry, so to speak." He smirked at his own joke.

Nick tried not to roll his eyes.

"That's great, except they're all dead. Colleen, Owen and Justin." Detective Crawford said. The smile fell from Gary's face quickly and he paled.

"Also, this man. Have you seen him before?" Nick asked, pushing Chad Burn's DMV photo and Gary. He studied it.

"No, but he looks lovely. I bet he's prey, Eater would have like him. Dessert, so to speak." He said, pushing the photo back at Nick.

"The other three have been dead a while, but Chad's been dead for three days. Which means Eater is still in Vegas. Is there anyone that you're still connected to that could provide us with a trail for this guy?" Nick asked. Gary shook his head.

"You don't understand. Eater sees me as a traitor to the community. Others see me as a traitor for being a part of the investigation that made it all public. I betrayed Eater by going to Miss Feed and finding a healthy outlet for my desires and I betrayed my friends by talking to you people. If I were to try and delve back into the community…I would not be accepted. I would be a pariah. No, I couldn't." He pushed himself away from the table and looked away.

"Not even to help us with this? At least give us a direction to go in. How is it that Eater has stayed under the radar for so long when he spent so much time fueling his story back then?" Detective Crawford asked. Gary picked at his fingernails nervously.

"All I can tell you is that the only reason Eater has gone underground is probably because he found someone who used to be like me. He had no need to kill anyone if he found another source of food. You should look there." Gary said.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When the graveyard shift started that evening, Grissom, Catherine, Sara and Greg had a happy reunion with Nick. Morgan and Finn watched from afar.

"Kind of makes you wish you were here years ago, doesn't it?" Finn said to Morgan, who nodded. Agent Ryan interrupted their reunion with news. She worked into the night to track down Eater. They suspected he'd changed his online handle to Dr. Lecter, and Agent Ryan was able to use her skills to confirm it.

"Despite our requests, Gary Korlov has refused to aid us further." She said. "I thought we could use him as bait to lure Eater out into the open, but he insists that Eater must have another prey that he feeds upon. So far, our theories about his motivations behind the murders seems to be holding up. He doesn't necessarily kill his food, just people who threaten his supply."

"What about finding his current food source?" Grissom asked. They turned to look at him.

"If we find who Eater's prey is right now, we find him. Perhaps there are ways of discovering this via the forums in the vore community or tracking any private communication shared between them." Grissom said.

"Sure, but then what?" Sara asked. "Do we take his food from him? We can't hold someone here against their will. What if Eater's food isn't interested in cooperating with our investigation?"

"Perhaps we don't have to take the food away, just track the person down. Follow them so that he or she leads us to Eater's current dining room, where we arrest him." Grissom said. Agent Ryan was nodding.

"This is a good idea, but we need a backup plan in case this goes awry. No offense, but I don't like relying on someone else's… prey, to lead me to the predator."

"What about giving Eater new food to go after?" Finn said. They were all looking at her now.

"You mean, use someone as bait to bring Eater out into the open?" Nick asked. Finn nodded.

"That's very risky. We don't even really know Eater's specific type. We'd have to set up an account for the person on the Vore site and then lure Eater that way." Catherine said.

"I'd argue that we do know his type. The people he murdered were never intended as sustainable sources of…food." D.B. said. "He has a type that he wants alive and willing, to keep coming back to him. His murder victims were all opportunistic food sources. Gary Korlov and Owen Linder were food sources for him, up until he killed Owen for recruiting the prey to Colleen's support group."

Grissom nodded and Agent Ryan smiled.

"Who would be the bait?" Morgan asked. They went silent, looking at each other.

"Not you." Her father said sternly. Morgan made a face at him and started to protest.

"You aren't his favorite type, anyway." Grissom said slowly, studying Morgan. "Sure, he dined on the Waring sisters, but only because they both got in his way at some point and why waste good food?" They all grimaced at the thought. The more they talked about people as though they were food, the stranger everything became.

"No, he prefers a very specific type. Gary Korlov was his first prey in Vegas, as far as we know. He took a chunk of Owen Linder when he offered himself up. He must have another person he's dining on right now, perhaps we should find him and use that pattern to establish who might be the best candidate." Grissom said.

"It sounds like you already have a candidate in mind." Catherine said.

"I do, but it's always nice to confirm with evidence." Grissom said.

"Who do you think should be the bait, just out of curiosity?" Nick asked. Grissom sighed and looked at one person in particular.

"Greg Sanders. He's Eater's favorite type." All eyes in the room went to Greg.

~XXXXX~

"It's a backup plan. As in not the real plan, it's what we do if the actual plan goes to hell." Morgan said to Greg, who was sitting alone in the locker room.

"So you want to be bait for a cannibal?" He asked. Morgan made a face.

"Definitely not." Greg sighed and tilted his head back into his locker to stare at the ceiling. After Grissom proclaimed that Greg was Eater's type, the room had burst into arguments. Grissom contended that Eater preferred slender white males, between the ages of 30 and 45, since Gary Korlov and Owen Linder both fit that description. Greg also fit that description perfectly and Agent Ryan had promptly agreed with Grissom. Greg snuck out while they were arguing to catch some air and hadn't even realized that Morgan followed him until he caught a whiff of her perfume.

"They're going to do everything they can to track down Eater's current meal and get to him that way. I bet we won't have to use you as bait at all." Morgan said confidently.

"Good. I taste horrible." Greg said. Morgan chuckled despite the seriousness of the situation. He looked over at her and she sighed, reaching out to put her hand on his shoulder.

"It'll all work out. You won't have to be bait." She said again. "I'd offer to put myself in your place, but…that idea was already shot down." Greg sat up.

"I wouldn't let you put yourself in my place. No way."

Morgan arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh, so chivalry isn't dead?"

"I don't know if I'd call saving you from being cannibal food as chivalrous. More just…decent human behavior." Greg said. Morgan smiled and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"So you aren't my knight in shining armor?" She blinked her eyes at him flirtatiously and laughed.

"You don't need one of those. You're pretty tough on your own." Greg said. She tilted her head and was ready to respond when they were interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt this… uhh, whatever this is." Sara said. They both looked at her, realizing how close they'd gotten in just the last minute. "But Agent Ryan is going to use her computer skills to track down Eater's current prey since we've pretty much reached a dead end with everything else. Nick is sending Gary back to San Diego on a plane, but he's going to stay a while. You might want to come back to the room." She smiled and backed away from the locker room.

"C'mon, let's go get this guy." Morgan said, standing up and holding her hand out to Greg. He took it and she pulled him up.

"For what it's worth… I'm sure you're fairly tasty to a cannibal." Morgan said to Greg, who laughed.

"I'll take that as a compliment. I think."

~XXXXX~

They gave everyone a break and Sara used this chance to talk to Gil alone, for the first time since he'd arrived in Vegas. She pulled him into one of the side rooms and pulled the door shut behind her.

"We haven't had a chance to talk privately since I called Catherine." Sara said. Gil nodded slowly.

"I know you weren't really expecting me to come with her, but she described the case I knew it would be interesting." He said.

"Yeah. So…how have you been? I heard you came back to the states a couple of months ago." Sara said.

"Catherine lured me back with an opportunity to consult on a serial killer case in Ohio. There were questions about time of death and since it was on a dairy farm, lots of insects and other bugs involved." Gil said.

"So…I thought you'd call me when you got back to the states, but you didn't." She said slowly. She knew it was unfair to feel a little irritated with him. They were divorced, after all. He didn't owe her a phone call at any time if he didn't want to talk, but they still had a lot in common.

"I thought I would too, but then I couldn't figure out what to say, so I thought I might as well just avoid it until I could figure it out. I didn't plan to stay; I was going to go back to Peru after that serial killer case, but…" His voice trailed off and he looked around the lab with a small smile on his face.

"I'd forgotten how much I missed this place. Coming back brings back a lot of fond memories." Gil said. Sara couldn't even be mad at him. She knew he wasn't being hurtful on purpose, but sometimes it was so difficult to talk to him, to just get him to talk to _her_.

"So are you staying?" She asked. They both knew that lack of love wasn't the reason for the divorce, but she didn't want to get her hopes up for something that wasn't going to happen again.

"I don't know." Grissom said. "What would I do if I stayed?" He asked. He had a good point. He had a very specialized set of skills; perhaps he could work at the university if they had a position available, but if they didn't, there wasn't many places in Vegas besides the crime lab that could use a forensic scientist. Sara wanted to kick herself. Sure, maybe a small part of her thought that if she found a way to get Grissom back to Vegas he'd remember how much he loved it here, with the old team, with her, and maybe even consider staying, but she knew it was impractical.

It didn't help that the last date she went on ended in a bust when she found out the guy wasn't as divorced as he'd led her to believe. She'd felt like such a fool when she found out and instead of officially ending things, she just stopped returning his calls and texts. He'd gotten the hint eventually.

"I've missed you Sara, I really have." Gil said quietly, stepping closer. Her first instinct was to lean in, but she forced herself not too. _I can't do this and get my heart broken again if it's not going to work out._

"I've missed you too, Gil. I just…hoped that working together again might help you remember the good times." She said finally.

"I'll always remember you." He said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Everyone was on a temporary break when Agent Ryan found and decrypted the private messages between Dr. Lecter, also known as Eater, and another user on the Vore site. The messages were almost a year old. She found D.B. still hanging around and pulled him into the room she was working in to show him the exchanges.

"I'm fairly certain that this user called Devoured is Eater's new source of food. I tracked all of the threads and tags he posted under and he positions himself as a prey desperate for companionship. Dr. Lecter pounced on him about a week after he started posting." Agent Ryan said.

"This is great, can you track his ISP?"

"Working on that now. He hasn't posted anything in the last week or two, but after initially joining and coming into contact with Eater, his postings gradually dwindled." Agent Ryan said. "Okay. I got his ISP through his IP address. He's a local named Donald Anderson. You should get a few CSIs to go over there to investigate his house."

"Great, I'll call PD and let them know." D.B. said. He went into the hall to update Detective Crawford over the phone. After hanging up, he went to go find anyone that might still be hanging around, not really expecting to find anyone. He wandered into the break room and found Sara eating an apple and Greg drinking coffee. They sat at the table together, but whatever conversation they were having ended when D.B. entered the room.

"Congratulations, you two. You've just volunteered to go to Donald Anderson's house. Agent Ryan thinks he's Eater's latest meal. He's a local, lives in Henderson. Detective Crawford will be going with you."

"You're looking for anything that can tie him to Eater, especially his real identity. I want to give this man a real name." D.B. said. Greg and Sara nodded and got up. Sara tossed her finished apple and Greg took his coffee with him.

"Do you want us to find anyone else and bring them along?" Sara asked.

"No. I don't want too many cooks in the kitchen." D.B. said.

~XXXXX~

"How are you and Grissom doing?" Greg asked as they headed towards Henderson. Sara looked at him in surprise. She didn't know why she felt it, she was actually more surprised that more people hadn't mentioned it already. Or if they had, it wasn't to her face.

"Oh, you know. It's a little awkward, but we're mature adults. It hasn't prevented us from working together on the case." She said.

"Do you think he'll stick around or go back to Quantico with Catherine?" Greg asked. Sara wondered the same thing. She never thought that there was anything romantic between Gil and Catherine, although sometimes he jokingly called her his work wife before their relationship began.

"Honestly, I don't know. He'll probably go back to Quantico, he has steady consulting work there. There's nothing holding him here." Sara said, sad to admit it.

"There's the lab and the old team…or what's left of it, I guess." Greg sighed. "It's nice to have everyone back in town, but I wish there was a way for us to get together that didn't involve work."

Sara couldn't agree more. "Yeah, but that's part of what makes it impossible. Our schedules are all so crazy, and we could never get time off all at once." When they got to Donald Anderson's house, they hung behind the officers and Detective Crawford while they cleared the house. Once they'd gone through each room, Greg and Sara were let inside.

"He isn't home. There's no car in the garage and there's a layer of dust on everything." One of the officers noted.

"Yeah, it looks like he hasn't been home in a while." Sara said, sifting through a pile of mail sitting in front of the door. The officers went back outside to secure the perimeter while they processed the house. Detective Crawford looked through some of Donald's things, but hung back while Greg and Sara did most of the digging.

"Aside from the dust, this house looks fairly neat. No sign of a struggle. No blood anywhere. This seems like a dead end." Detective Crawford muttered, staring at a bookshelf.

"I'm going to look around on the other end of the house." Sara said to Greg, who nodded. He stuck with Detective Crawford near the living room and the den, where Donald's computer was.

"We'll need to get this back to the lab." Greg said, pointing at it. Detective Crawford's phone rang and he walked outside and stood on the porch to talk. Greg looked around at papers and books that Donald had lying around, but he didn't find anything probative. If he didn't know about his online activities, he'd assume that Donald Anderson had a normal life.

He wandered towards the other end of the house and looked around. The kitchen was clean, the counters clear. The pantry didn't contain anything interesting and Greg was beginning to think that the only thing that would help them would be the computer. He wandered towards Donald's bedroom and opened the door.

"Sara?" He called, looking around. She wasn't there. He walked past the bed to see an armoire against one wall. The latch was unhooked and the door swung open.

"Huh." Greg muttered, inching the door open to shine a flashlight inside. At first, it seemed like a normal armoire. It contained dress shirts, ties and nice pants, but then Greg felt a distinct… _breeze_ coming from the back. He knocked on the wood and was shocked to find it sounded hollow. Since the armoire was as tall as he was, he didn't have much trouble shoving the clothes out of the way and pressing on the back of it.

The back of the armoire gave away to a small hallway that ended in stairs that led downwards.

"This is interesting." Greg muttered. He stepped into the hallway and had to hunch over to fit himself inside. He walked all the way to the end and shined his flashlight down the stairs. He could see Sara's kit gleam back up at him.

"Sara, what do you see?" He asked, taking the steps two at a time. She didn't respond. He got to the bottom and found a basement. Sara's kit was there, but she wasn't. The basement didn't look like anything special. Concrete walls, exposed beams and a dim, old light bulb that shone in the darkness. Piles of boxes and shelves crowded one end of the room, making it a maze.

"Sara?" Greg shined the light around the room. He heard a thud and turned towards it. A shape appeared from the darkness near the maze, a mask on his face. He hit Greg over the head and Greg fought back. He was about to yell for Detective Crawford when the man forced a thick cloth over his mouth a nose. Greg inhaled something sickly sweet but rotten and felt his vision go fuzzy.

"No!" Greg tried to swing at him, but the smell grew stronger and more rotten, like spoiled candy. His head spun and his vision tunneled.

"Sara…" He muttered, before everything went dark and he felt pain jerk through his arms, shoulders and neck.

~XXXXX~

D.B. got a call from Detective Crawford explaining that Donald Anderson's house appeared to be a dead end. They packed up his computer, but Greg and Sara were still digging around. People were returning from the break he'd given them. Since there were other cases starting to pile up, he reassigned Morgan and Finn to other scenes in the meantime since their investigation into Eater seemed to have stalled.

Agent Ryan's focus was still discovering Eater's true identity, but she was impressed by how well he hid himself online. D.B. stuck with her since she would probably be the one to catch a break regarding Eater's true identity.

"This guy is good, he knows how to hide himself." Agent Ryan said.

Finn and Morgan entered the room to see what they were up to and to find out more information. D.B. updated them regarding Donald Anderson.

"Wow, have you sent anyone over there?" Finn asked, looking eager.

"I had Greg and Sara go, they were in the break room." D.B. said. "But I haven't heard anything about all the trace Hodges was working on. You should go check on him and get an update."

Morgan and Finn exchanged a glance.

"Where are Catherine, Nick and Grissom?" Morgan asked.

"Oh, probably catching up someplace. Let them have their short time together, they'll be leaving when this case is over anyway." D.B. said. Finn and Morgan found Hodges in the trace lab, looking down a microscope.

"So, we're here to get an update on the trace from the abandoned industrial warehouse and the mummies." Finn said.

"And our guy, Chad Burns." Morgan said. Hodges sighed and lifted his head.

"Do you understand how underappreciated I am?"

Finn stared back him and Morgan folded her arms over her chest.

"Fine, I have it. I'll have you know I had a nice, long conversation with Grissom about how three dead bodies could be mummified within the period of one year. He's convinced that the bodies were stored elsewhere and then moved. Makes you wonder why that happened, hmm?" Hodges said, bustling around the room, locating reports.

"So you're telling me you have something that will help us answer that question?" Finn asked.

"Well, each of the mummies had trace under their nails and in their mouths. Common sand, the type you'd find out near Red Rock Canyon." He showed them the report.

"So they were out there some place?"

"Yes, but they were moved and I'm pretty sure I know why. Look at this." He showed them a hard, black substance stuck to the legs of one of the mummies.

"What is that?" Morgan asked.

"Tar and asphalt. The city had to have been building or paving a road out there and the crew got to close to where the bodies were, so he moved them to a place he thought they wouldn't be found." Hodges said with a shrug.

"Anything else we might find relevant?" Finn asked.

"Chad Burns had trace of chemical common to meat packing facilities on him. I don't know what that might tell you, since he was found in a house, but I don't think that's where he and Eater met up."

~XXXXX~

Detective Crawford realized something was amiss when he went back into the house ten minutes later and called out, but received no response.

"Greg? Sara?" He went into each room, his gun drawn. He pulled the other officers inside.

"Where did they go?" He asked them.

"I didn't see them leave and their Denali is still here." One of the officers said, pointing at it.

"Go back through the house. Be thorough. No closet unchecked." They went through the entire house once again and that's when one of the officers found the tunnel behind the armoire.

"Detective! Come look at this!" The officers and the detective came into the bedroom and one of the officers pointed at the tunnel.

"No one knew this was here." She said. Detective Crawford took the lead, his gun raised. The rest of the officers followed him down the narrow tunnel to a basement area. Immediately, he saw the CSI's two kits. He approached silently. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he swore loudly.

"Crawford, are you all right?" One of the officers called down.

"Yeah. Call Ecklie and D.B. They're going to be _pissed_."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Greg…?"

He was somewhere dark and distant. He could hear Sara's voice calling out to him weakly. His neck hurt. _What's going on…where am I?_

"Please wake up!" He heard her hiss. He struggled to open his eyes. When they finally came open, he inhaled the stagnant air and tried to move. He lifted his head and winced, feeling something sting on the back of his neck. There was something crusty and dry on the sides of his neck and on the shoulders of his shirt.

"Oh thank God. Greg, you're alive." Sara said. He turned to look at her. She was in a large wooden chair bolted to the floor. She was restrained with metal and leather straps around her chest and legs. Her arms were bound behind her. She wasn't wearing her vest, or her gun or her radio.

Greg stared down at himself. He wasn't wearing any of those things, either. He was strapped into a similar chair, also with his hands bound. He stared at his shirt.

"Is this…blood?" He asked thickly, feeling like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"Yes. It's yours." Sara said, looking worried.

"Mine?"

"He cut your neck, that's why it hurts." She said.

"Did he cut yours?"

"No, I just have a pounding headache. I think he used chloroform on us. Did you smell a sickly rotting smell?" Sara asked.

"Yes." Greg said groggily, trying to study their surroundings. "Where are we?"

"It looks like the meat packing plant where we found the mummies. It could be the same complex of buildings, since this isn't the exact one we found them in. I don't know." Sara said quietly. Greg winced and tried to move a little more, but he saw stars and stopped.

"Who did this?" He asked. Sara looked around, as if checking to make sure no one was coming.

"Did you see?" Greg whispered.

"Yes. It was Eater. He looks just like the sketch, Korlov was right." Sara murmured, chewing her lip. Greg felt a wash of dread come over him. He remembered Morgan's comment about him being tasty to a cannibal and tried to squash the rising panic he felt in his chest.

"Did you talk to him?"

"No, I only saw his face as I was coming out of it. When he was restraining us in the chairs. He left after that and I haven't seen him since. That was about fifteen minutes ago. What was the last thing you remember?" She asked.

Greg struggled to think. It felt like someone put rubber cement in his brain and slowed everything down. The memories were a little foggy at first. "Uh, we went to Donald Anderson's house. I went looking for you and then I found this…armoire. It was like Narnia only…bad." Greg said. Sara tried not to smile. He was slurring his words and she wondered if maybe he'd been dosed with something else while they were out.

"He took our phones away, too." Sara said. Greg hadn't even thought of that, but when he fidgeted in the chair, he didn't feel his phone in his pocket.

"How are they going to find us?" Greg wondered desperately. Sara didn't want to think about it. She hadn't told Greg yet about the elaborate camera set up behind him. None of the equipment was on, thankfully, but it made her wonder what Eater had planned for them. This was one time when she wished she didn't have an imagination.

"I'm more interested in where Donald Anderson went and how Eater knew we'd find his house." Sara replied. From across the expansive room, they both heard a loud scraping noise; metal on metal, and then a loud thud before soft footsteps approached. Sara heard her own panicked breathing intensify and she watched as Greg's face went pale. They stayed silent as the footsteps got closer.

Out of the shadows, Eater appeared, a smile on his face.

"Ahh, my appetizer and main course are having a conversation. Don't tire yourselves, I have big plans for you two."

~XXXXX~

"What?" Ecklie demanded, shooting up out of his chair.

"They were here and now they aren't. The…cannibal has them." Detective Crawford said.

"How do you know?"

"Oh, he left a nice message for us. You better call the CSIs down here to analyze it." Crawford muttered.

"Call Russell and get him down there. I'm on my way." Ecklie said, rushing from his office. As the sheriff sped his way over to Henderson, Detective Crawford made the call to CSI Russell about his two team members.

"How do you know they were taken by Eater?" Russell asked quietly. Agent Ryan turned to look at him, her typing stopped. No one else was in the room.

"He left a pretty clear message. I called Ecklie, he wants you guys down here to analyze it. I already have the officers canvassing the neighbors to see if they saw anything." Detective Crawford said. Russell could tell how frustrated he was by his tone of voice. "He's on his way down here now."

"We'll be down there as soon as we can." Russell hung up and ran his hands through his hair.

"What happened?" Agent Ryan asked, moving away from the computer.

"Greg and Sara were taken at Donald Anderson's home. Ecklie is on his way down there now, but he wants the CSIs too. Apparently he left a message for us to analyze. Can you hold down the fort on this end?" He asked.

"Sure. What should I tell Gil, Nick and Catherine when they get back?"

"I'll contact them so that they can meet us there." Russell said. "Thanks!" He left the room in a rush to find Morgan and Finn. He found the both of them talking to Hodges in the trace lab.

"Finn, Morgan get your kits we have to go. NOW!" Russell shouted. They both jumped and exchanged glances before dashing out of the lab to get their supplies. Russell was in such a rush they didn't get a chance to ask him what was going on until they got into the car with him.

"Why are we in such a hurry?" Finn asked.

"It's Sara and Greg. They were taken from Donald Anderson's home. Right under Detective Crawford's nose! He's sure it was Eater because he says he left a message." Russell said, his voice strained.

"Taken?" Morgan gasped. "Greg and Sara?"

"Yes. If Eater really does have them then there's no telling what he'll do to them. We have to do what we can to gather evidence and track Eater down. Agent Ryan is staying behind to track Eater's online activity. She's hoping that she can trace a digital bread crumb out into the non-digital world and track him that way." D.B. said.

"Has anyone told Nick, Catherine and Gil?" Finn asked.

"Not yet." D.B. said. Morgan's eyes widened.

Finn pulled out her phone. "I'll break the news."

~XXXXX~

They piled into Catherine's rental SUV when Nick's phone rang.

"Stokes. Hey, Finn, what's going on?" Nick asked as Catherine started the car and pulled out of the diner's parking lot. Gil turned to look at Nick and watched as a range of emotions made their way over his features.

"WHAT?" He yelled. Catherine frowned and Gil pulled back in surprise.

"Send me the address, we're on our way now." Nick said sharply. He hung up and looked at a text message.

"We need to get to Henderson, now." Nick said.

"What happened in Henderson?" Gil asked.

"They tracked down Donald Anderson's house, he's been Eater's meal for the last several months since Gary moved away. Greg and Sara went to the scene to process it for any connections to Eater and they were taken. Detective Crawford and officers where THERE." Nick exclaimed.

"Taken? By Eater?" Gil asked, sitting up. "How do they know?"

"I'm texting Detective Crawford now. I guess he left a message, that's what Finn said. I'll have him take a picture and send it to me. I texted you the address, Catherine." He said quickly. Catherine plugged her phone in the directions popped up.

"How could two CSIs get taken from a cleared scene?" Gil demanded. Nick was shaking his head.

"According to Detective Crawford, there was a tunnel built into a wall in the master bedroom. It was covered by an armoire. It led to a basement area under the house. The officers are canvassing the neighborhood, trying to figure out how he got two adults out of a basement without anyone seeing him." Nick said.

"Well there had to have been an underground tunnel or something." Catherine said. "That's the only explanation."

"Do we have any leads on Eater's identity? I can't remember working on a case for this long without finding out something." Gil said.

"Agent Ryan is still on it. He lives off the grid except for his internet contacts, but he's good at bouncing stuff off of proxy servers to make it harder to track." Nick said. His phone beeped and he hurriedly opened the message.

"Awww….FUCK!" He yelled. Gil didn't often hear Nick cuss, since he liked to say that a gentlemen could always find a better way to express his anger, so he knew it couldn't be good.

"What?" Catherine and Gil demanded at the same time. Nick covered his face and handed Gil his phone.

"That's the message Eater left." He said, swallowing the lump forming in his throat. Gil gripped the phone tightly in his hand, staring down at the message scrawled across a wall. His eyes narrowed and he felt a rush of cold come over him.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Catherine said, zooming around people on the highway and going as fast as she could.

"We gotta find him Catherine." Gil said quietly. "We've got too."

~XXXXX~

"I'm sure you're wondering what I'm planning to do with the two of you, but you're both smart people, so I'm sure you can make an educated guess." Eater said softly. Greg didn't even want to look at him. Something about his eyes forced you to stare back at him, though. It was like some unwanted magnetic pull that he couldn't resist.

He got up and moved behind Greg where he began to move things around. Sara watched him carefully, but Greg couldn't see what it was. He brought a light forward and set it in front of them, directly in the center. He switched it on and they both squinted in its brightness. He moved more equipment around so that Greg could see what it was. It was a camera on a tripod. A laptop. A generator for power. Several cans of gasoline.

"I'm sure you're wondering how I came into possession of these things. They were borrowed from friends who owed me…favors." He grinned, which made his expression even worse. He aimed the camera at the two of them and turned on the generator.

He spent several minutes hooking everything up and turning it all on. During that time he didn't speak and neither of them spoke. Greg looked at Sara, who was studying the equipment as if she were looking for something.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering why your neck hurts so much. That is because, Gregory, I sliced it open and used your blood to send a message to your colleagues." He said. Greg swallowed. Of course he'd kept their IDs and gone through their wallets. He knew their names. Their addresses, whose picture they might have stuffed into the corner of wallet where they kept random gift cards that still had a couple of bucks on them. Greg squeezed his eyes shut.

"Now, I'm sure Sara is wondering why I chose Gregory for the message instead of her. I will be quite honest. I do not prefer females as meals, but beggars can't be choosers, right? That's why you're just the appetizer." He said to her quietly. Sara bit down on the insides of her mouth so she wouldn't scream or shriek at him.

"He's the main course." Eater said, pointing at Greg and licking his lips. Bile rose in Greg's throat and he forced it back down.

"But before dinner…. A show!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Morgan, Finn and D.B. arrived at Donald Anderson's house in record time. They were allowed through the crime scene tape where Ecklie and Detective Crawford stood just inside the door.

"Where's the scene?" D.B. asked.

"Down here." Detective Crawford said, leading the way. They followed him in anxious silence. The armoire had been pulled away from the wall and the doorway was clear for them to walk through.

"Nick, Catherine and Gil are on their way." Finn said. "Someone should wait for them to show them where to go."

"I'll have an officer do that." Detective Crawford said as they made their way down the narrow hallway.

"We didn't touch anything down here, we left it as it was found." He said. There was little light, but the CSIs could see two kits at the foot of the stairs, right next to one another, unopened. D.B. turned on his flashlight and so did Morgan and Finn.

As soon as they got to the foot of the stairs, they shined their lights around the room. A table off to the side held Greg and Sara's personal belongings and CSI equipment. Their vests, phones, radios, wallets and keys were set neatly in individual piles.

"Here's…the message." Detective Crawford said, shining a light at the wall around the corner.

"Ohhh…"Morgan groaned. Blood dripped down the wall and in large, scrawled letters it said, "EAT THEIR HEARTS OUT HAHAHA!"

"Swab that blood. Do we have the preliminary DNA tester?" D.B. asked. Finn nodded. Morgan stepped forward and took a sample from several different locations in the message. She handed the samples to Finn, who fed them into the tester. They stood around anxiously.

"Are…Greg and Sara in the system?" Finn asked quietly.

"Yes. After the Langston debacle, I required all CSIs to submit a blood sample to enter into the databases for comparison purposes." Ecklie said. The computer beeped and a picture of Greg smiling popped onto the screen.

"Oh no. Oh God…"Morgan said, looking up at the bloody message. "It's all Greg's. It's all his." She had to force herself to breath slowly and deeply so that she wouldn't panic.

"How much blood would you say that is?" She asked. "Could you lose that much and survive?"

Finn nodded. "You would need enough to spell the words and that's it. If he wanted Greg to live, then it wouldn't have been an artery. He could still be alive with that much blood loss, but he won't be feeling very good."

"Okay, our best hope at finding the two of them is to process everything in this house. Find anything that links Donald Anderson to Eater. Tracks his financials, everything, he could be using Donald's identity to get things." D.B. said. "Have we figured out how he got out of here with two of my team members?"

"Not yet." Detective Crawford said.

"Okay, then that's what we'll do first." D.B. said. They began processing the basement when they heard clattering upstairs and voices.

"I bet its Nick, Gil and Catherine." Finn said to Morgan, who was testing the walls of the room for hidden openings. Sure enough, a few seconds later, they came clattering down the stairs.

"Whose blood is it?" Nick asked. Gil went straight to Morgan and Finn, realizing what they were doing immediately.

"Greg's." Morgan said. Her voice choked up and she blinked away tears that suddenly appeared in her eyes. "It's all Greg's. We tested it. We're looking for the path Eater took out of here."

"Found it!" Gil called out, pushing a section of wall. It opened and revealed a dark tunnel. Morgan immediately went inside and Gil followed her.

"Hey! What…" Finn called.

"We'll follow this. You guys should try to track Eater down using Donald Anderson's financial records." Morgan said. Finn nodded.

She and Gil walked brusquely through the tunnel. It was dark and the only light came from their flashlights.

"These tracks look like a cart or wheelbarrow of some kind." Morgan said, shining her flashlight down on the ground. They took pictures periodically as they walked the tunnel.

They were silent for a while until Gil spoke.

"You care for him, don't you?"

Morgan hesitated. "What?"

"Greg. You care for him. More than just as a colleague. I can sense it." He said.

"What…why would you think that?" Morgan asked. They continued walking. The tunnel was quite long and narrowed slightly.

"My mother is deaf and I used to have a lot of problems with my hearing. It's been fixed for now, but it's a degenerative disease. I learned to read lips, interpret body language, facial expressions. They're very valuable tools. I can tell." Morgan was silent.

"Have you told him that you care about him?" Gil asked.

"No. I couldn't." Morgan said. They were getting to the end of the tunnel. It had to be at least half a mile long! There was no telling how many properties it went under.

"Why not?"

"It…would disrupt the team. Catherine left for Quantico. Nick left for San Diego. We almost lost Finn. Now _this_ with him and Sara. What if it ended badly? I wouldn't want to do that to the group, not after everything else."

"But that could happen anyway, couldn't it? You're talking about the team breaking up, going their separate ways. Any number of things could cause that. A relationship is not one of those things. You and Greg are professionals. You can't have something you never work for." Gil insisted. Morgan considered where he was coming from. He and Sara had a relationship. They worked together successfully until…

"What about Sara?" Morgan asked. They reached the end of the tunnel. They pushed open a set of wooden doors that had been built into the ground and came out at a vacant lot.

"Tire treads." Gil said, pulling out his phone and snapping photos of them. Morgan scanned the lot, looking for any trace.

"This looks like the wood shavings they collected from one of the mummies." Morgan said, collecting trace from the ground. They scanned the lot, moving over every square inch. Gil sent pictures of the tire treads to the lab right away.

"You aren't off the hook you know. What about Sara?"

Gil looked up from across the lot. "What happened between Sara and I…was worth every moment, even if we aren't together now. I don't regret it."

"So…do you still love each other? I mean, why did you get a divorce if you don't mind my asking?" Morgan asked.

"Let's go back through the tunnel" He said. They reentered the tunnel and on the way back, he answered her question. "People like to think that love should get you through everything, but sometimes it's not enough. Sara and I loved each other and we never really stopped. We just…couldn't make the long distance thing work. We both wanted different things out of our careers at the time and neither one of us saw a way to incorporate the other person into it."

"So…your careers got in the way?"

"I suppose. It was more like the distance between us got in the way. Sara didn't want to come back to Peru and I didn't want to leave. After spending years apart, we realized that we weren't really a married couple anymore. We were just people who talked on the phone and Skyped occasionally. It was like we just… grew apart. We still loved one another, but that wasn't enough." He said.

"You could give it another shot, you know. The distance is no longer between the two of you. At least, not as much." Morgan said. They were quickly approaching the entrance in the basement.

"Maybe…"He muttered. They came through the other end and went back up the tunnel and into the main house.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Nick was saying as D.B. shook his head.

"What's going on?" Gil asked.

"Eater sent us a secured link to a video of Greg and Sara. It doesn't work now, but the message said it will be active in an hour." D.B. said. "He's going to do who knows what to them and we'll have to sit and watch!"

~XXXXX~

"What's your name?" Sara asked. He turned and looked at her curiously.

"You can call me Eater. It's simple, easy to remember." He said, turning back to his equipment. He typed something on the laptop.

"What did your mother call you?" Sara asked.

"I didn't have a mother." He said quietly. "I didn't need one." They were silent for a moment.

"What about your father?" She asked.

He turned to look at them both. "I am Nobody! Who are you? Are you –Nobody – too?" Greg stared at him puzzled, but recognition appeared in Sara's eyes.

"Emily Dickinson."

He grinned. "One of my favorites." He pulled out a large bottle of red wine and a wine glass. He poured a generous amount into the glass and swirled it around. He approached Sara with the glass and said, "Open wide."

She stared up at him in surprise, unable to respond to his command. He grabbed her jaw and pressed on the sides of her face.

"Ah!" She gasped in alarm, her mouth opening against the pressure being put against the sides of her jaw and mouth. He promptly forced her head all the way back and poured the entire glass of wine down her throat.

"Hey! Stop!" Greg yelled. Sara coughed and wine bubbled back up onto her chin and dribbled down her front. She made gagging noises as he held her head up.

"If she didn't resist, she wouldn't choke on it." He said. Sara made a few more gagging noises before the rest of the wine went down her throat. He let go and she coughed violently, her face turning bright red.

"Your turn, delicious." He said to Greg, who grimaced. He poured even more wine into the glass this time and approached him. He grabbed his jaw and forced his head back. Greg let out an involuntary whimper; the back of his neck still throbbing from the wound Eater put there. He pressed the sides of his jaw, forcing his mouth open.

"Ugghh." Greg heard a noise come from his throat as Eater poured all of the wine into his mouth. He gagged on it, resisting as little as possible as it made its way down his throat. Eater let go and Greg coughed violently. "Good. Very good. More!" He did it again, to both of them, until the entire bottle was consumed.

"This isn't over." Eater said, pulling out another bottle. It was the same type of wine. He repeated the process with both of them until that bottle had also been consumed. Sara's head swam with the alcohol. She hadn't eaten a large meal that day and all the wine sat uncomfortably in her stomach. She knew she was drunk, the way everything moved slowly and the way her muscles involuntarily relaxed told her she was.

Greg was slumped over as well. She was dimly aware of the fact that losing the amount of blood he had, combined with alcohol, was probably dangerous. "Good, now you're relaxed enough for our show." Eater said. He moved about the room, pushing buttons and turning things on. He positioned himself in front of the camera with a remote in his hand.

"Show time!"

~XXXXX~

They all gathered around to watch the video. Agent Ryan was watching from the lab, doing everything she could to track the location based on the metadata of the video. When the link became active they clicked it and Eater's face filled the screen.

He smiled. _Which makes it a million times worse,_ Morgan thought.

"I've been spending the last several minutes helping your friends Sara and Gregory relax. They were much to tense, but after two bottles of wine, I think they're doing better." He moved out of the way to show Greg and Sara, strapped into wooden chairs that were bolted to the floor. The heavy lighting made it difficult to see the background.

Agent Ryan assured them over the radio that she was doing what she could to get images of the background for enhancement to see what they could do to find the location.

Sara and Greg were partially slumped over in their chairs, they're eyes not on the camera. Eater went behind Sara and grabbed her by the head, forcing her eyes up to look into the camera.

"What do you have to say to your colleagues?"

"I…uhh… I can't think…" Sara slurred her words, but she looked regretful, like she knew she should be trying to articulate something, but it just wouldn't come out of her mouth.

Eater let go of her face and her head fell forward. Morgan glanced at Grissom, whose eyes were narrowed. He was breathing like he was containing his anger. Morgan knew this because she felt the same way. She looked back at the screen. Eater moved onto Greg, pulling his head up. They could see the blood stains on the shoulders and front of his shirt. His eyes were drooping.

"What about you?"

Greg's eyes flew open and he gritted his teeth at the camera. "Mummies. Abandoned meat plant!" He said, his words very slurred. Eater pulled out a steak knife and pointed it at his neck.

"You shouldn't have said that. I was going to save you for after the appetizer, but perhaps I should taste a little, just to see what I have to look forward too, hmm?" He reached off camera and grabbed a container of what looked like oil mixed with seasonings.

"Oh God…is he going to…?" Morgan asked quietly. Nick and Catherine both covered their mouths, looking shocked and nauseated. Eater came around to Greg's other side and pressed the knife alongside his arm.

"A piece of this will do." He said. Greg looked up slowly, as if realizing what Eater was about to do.

"No, I…AHHHHHH!" He screamed, thrashing violently in his chair as Eater calmly made sharp slices into his arm, shaped like a rectangle. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears against Greg's agonized screams. When they stopped, she opened her eyes to see Greg, slumped to the side and passed out, blood pouring from a wound in his arm. Sara was crying, hunched over.

"Greg? Greg!" She was saying in desperation. Eater sat in front of the camera, blocking them from view. He seasoned the piece of Greg's skin in front of them and promptly bit into with a smile of ecstasy on his face. They could hear Sara's sobs in the background and her pleas for Greg to wake up.

"Delicious." Eater said, smiling into the camera before the image went black and the video ended.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Thanks to all who have reviewed and who followed the story! I hope you're still enjoying it! (This is NOT the last chapter, there are more on the way!)**

Chapter 9

Morgan burst into tears and fled the room. Everyone exchanged glances and Grissom went after her. He chased her out of the house and onto the front lawn, where she stopped at Greg and Sara's Denali and leaned against it, tears still streaming down her face. She looked up at him.

"Aren't you even worried? You look completely calm." Grissom leaned up against the car next to her.

"Of course I'm worried. The calm exterior is something I've perfected over time. When you're a supervisor, you can't look as though you don't know what to do or have an emotional meltdown in front of the people who look to you for guidance."

"But you are worried about Sara?"

"Of course I am! We have to find this guy before he seriously hurts either one of them or someone else." Morgan wiped the tears from her face.

"Right now, Sara and Greg need us to work hard to track this guy down. The sooner we piece the evidence together, the quicker we find them and arrest Eater." Grissom explained. As they talked, the rest of the team came out of the house and piled into the various cars. Morgan and Grissom got into Greg and Sara's Denali and drove it back to the crime lab.

They delivered their evidence to the trace lab and went to check on Agent Ryan, who was working through the encrypted data from the video link.

"I'm tracking him through this, but I don't have an exact location yet. He's definitely somewhere near the site where the first mummified bodies were found, but that complex of buildings is vast. You can't search every single one and expect him to stick around until you show up, so I'm trying to narrow it down." Agent Ryan explained.

"Well, Morgan and Grissom collected some trace evidence from Donald Anderson's house and from the place where he dragged Greg and Sara." D.B. said. "Finn and Nick are working on the Donald Anderson angle, trying to track him down via his financial records and things like that. It looked as though he hadn't been in his house for a couple of weeks."

"That's great. You know, you've been a pretty big help. You think outside the box and you aren't afraid to make the hard decisions. We could really use a guy like you down at the Cyber Division." Agent Ryan said, smiling. D.B. suppressed his surprise. _Him?_

"I don't think of myself as very tech savvy." He admitted.

"We don't only deal with tech, we deal with people as well. You're good at that. I know it would be a big change for you, but think about it. You'd be working for the FBI." Agent Ryan said. D.B. nodded, still stunned, but pleased, by the offer.

"Let me think about it and I'll get back to you."

~XXXXX~

Nick and Finn worked on digging into Donald Anderson's financial records. Finn was able to get information from his bank about his spending habits, credit cards, bills and other payments. Nick worked on digging through his credit card statements to see what purchases he'd been making recently.

"He's still paying his bills. Mortgage, insurance, cell phone. They're all set up on automatic draft, so nothing seems amiss." Nick said to Finn, who checked over his shoulder. "No big credit card purchases in the last several weeks."

"Did we get his cell records?" She asked.

"Yeah, we don't have them in yet, but they're on the way. Detective Crawford put a BOLO out for his car" Nick replied.

As Finn analyzed his financial records, she noticed a series of large withdrawals beginning about a month previous.

"Look at this." She said, pointing at his bank records. "Cash withdrawals from his checking account from various ATMS for hundreds of dollars. When you go back several months, it's obvious that Donald doesn't typically use ATMS and when he does, he rarely takes out more than $100 at a time."

They tracked the dates of each withdrawal and found the ATM location that was used for each one. Nick called the banks and asked if they could see their ATM's security footage, which was promptly sent to them. They fast-forwarded through the footage from each bank to the exact time they were looking for to see who made the withdrawal.

"It was Donald. He's actually making the withdrawal." Nick said, surprised.

"When was the most recent withdrawal made?" Finn asked. Nick dug through the information, scanning the records.

"Three weeks ago. He withdrew $300 from four different ATMS. There hasn't been any activity on his credit cards or bank account since then." Nick said. They reviewed the most recent footage, and again saw only Donald, but he didn't look very well.

"Maybe Eater had some kind of hold on him and was able to manipulate him into going and getting the money himself." Finn said. "That could be how Eater bought the equipment he used to send us the video. He paid with the cash Donald gave him, so the transaction can't be traced! Damn."

"Hey!" Morgan said, appearing in the doorway. "They found Donald's car!"

Nick went with Morgan to the scene and Finn stayed behind to continue tracking Donald's financials. They drove out towards Henderson, but stopped at a truck stop, where Donald's car was parked. Morgan looked at the inside and saw blood stains on the back passenger seat.

"Blood." She pointed out to Nick, who frowned. They processed the car, taking samples of hair and blood that they found inside. The keys were not in the ignition, but the doors were unlocked.

"Pop the trunk, will you?" Nick asked. Morgan went to the front and popped the trunk. Nick waited for her to come around back. They exchanged a glance before opening it together.

"Oh…oh God. I guess we found Donald!" Nick said, backing away from the trunk. Three weeks in the hot Vegas sun had accelerated the decomposition of the corpse in the trunk, liquefying most of the soft tissue. They couldn't tell by looking if it really was Donald, but since he was nowhere to be found, Nick thought it wasn't a huge leap to make the assumption.

"I'll dust for prints. I know Eater's not in the system, but since we got his fingerprints from Donald's house, we can at least confirm that they're the same as the prints of the person who drove this car." Morgan said.

Nick nodded. Morgan quickly printed the car. While she did that, he got copies of video surveillance footage of the parking lot from the truck stop owner so that they could see if the car Eater had moved too was on tape. They had the car towed back to the lab so that they could confirm the corpse as Donald Anderson. As they drove back to the lab, Morgan turned to Nick nervously.

"If Eater killed Donald, then that means his new food sources are Greg and Sara." She said. "What would make him kill a man who was cooperating with him and giving him money? And what does that mean for Greg and Sara?"

~XXXXX~

Eater turned off the lights and the camera before walking from the room without another word to either one of them. He took Greg's slice of skin with him, eating it as he walked off. Sara couldn't take it anymore – she vomited onto the floor. The alcohol combined with only a light meal from earlier and watching Eater's face made her physically incapable of holding anything in her stomach. She coughed and stared at Greg, whose face was pale and was still slumped over.

"Greg! GREG!" She cried out. She could hear his ragged breathing and new he was still alive. She called out his name for almost a minute before he came too, blinking slowly at her.

"Stay with me, please. We have to find a way out of here, out of this. We need to get you to a doctor." Sara said. Greg slowly sat up and then looked down at the rectangle of skin missing from his arm.

"He…ate me."

"Greg, please. Can you loosen your restraints at all? Is there anything sharp that you could grab onto?" Sara asked. She wiggled her hands in their restraints. She'd been working at them since she'd woken up and they definitely felt as though they were loosening.

Greg groaned and shifted around, wiggling in the chair. "I gave them a clue, they'll find us before Eater comes back and does something else." Greg said slowly. His words were still slurred and she knew that the wine was to blame, and his blood loss.

He wiggled around some more, but let out an agonized whimper and stopped. His eyes drooped and his head fell forward.

"No, don't give up. Think of…Morgan!" Sara said quickly. Greg's head came back up. He looked confused.

"Morgan? What?"

"Think of Morgan!" Sara said firmly. Greg kept staring at her with a confused expression on his face. Sara leaned back in her chair as far as she could and wriggled her hands.

"You have to get out of here. You have family and friends who love you. Think of them." Sara said. Greg nodded and started moving his arms around again.

"I'll think of Morgan." He slurred. Even though he had to be in excruciating pain, a smile spread over his face. Sara kept moving her wrists, trying to get them out of the restraints, while looking carefully at Greg.

"I'll think of how good she smells, especially her hair. It looks so soft and shiny, I just want to touch it and rub my face in it." He grinned and giggled. _Oh God, is he becoming delirious?_ Sara wondered. She knew that vomiting up the wine from earlier was the only thing that was preventing her from feeling lethargic and drunk like Greg.

"That's great, Greg! What else? Keep talking about Morgan." Sara encouraged. If he kept talking, she could at least monitor his health better. If he kept talking, she knew he wasn't in terrible shape.

"Morgan? Oh, she's so beautiful, but I don't think she's likes me as more than a friend." Greg said sadly, working on his own restraints.

"Why not?" Sara asked, desperate to keep him talking, even if they could be talking and planning an escape. If talking about Morgan was the only way to get him to talk, then that's what she would do.

"She flirts with me sometimes but then she never asks me out or anything. I know I could ask her out, but what if she isn't interested? Then it would be awkward every day and I don't think I could handle that." Greg said.

"You never know until you try. You're both mature adults, I think that if she said no, you'd be able to work together. I don't think she'd say no." Sara insisted. Greg looked at her, his fidgeting slowing down.

"You and Grissom. You should do the same thing. Get back together, you know."

"It's not that I wouldn't love to, except I don't know if he's staying. I don't want to invest my time in a relationship that's not going anywhere because I'll get hurt again. I'm not doing the long distance thing again because that's what broke us up to begin with." Sara said, wrenching her arm out of one of the restraints. It hurt like hell, but it was something! She worked on the other one.

"Oh. I guess…that makes sense." Greg said slowly.

"You going to ask Morgan out when we get out of this mess?" Sara asked him.

"I…yeah. I will!" Greg said.

"Oh no, it looks like our appetizer is trying to get away." Eater said, coming back into the room with more wine. He set the bottles on the table and refastened Sara's arm restraints. He tightened Greg's as well. He crouched near Greg and brushed his fingers along Greg's arm. Sara clenched her jaw in anger and she watched as Greg tried to shrink away from him.

"I just want you to know that you're quite delicious. Not too tough, not overly fatty, just the perfect blend of flavors. "Eater smiled at him, blood still visible between his teeth.

~XXXXX~

Doc Robbins used dental records to confirm the identity of the corpse as Donald Anderson. He notified the entire team as soon as he made a definitive match.

"Great, so Donald is our dead guy in the trunk. Now we need to figure out why Eater would kill a source of food." Nick said. Doc Robbins looked at him, surprised.

"Oh, I don't believe Eater killed this man. I'm still working on my report, but preliminary results indicate he had a high, but not lethal, dose of heart medication in his system. What was left of his heart was quite damaged. It looks like a severe heart attack, but I'll need to confirm with toxicology to make sure there wasn't anything else in his system."

They stared at him in surprise. "Not all deaths are homicides. Some are accidental or health related and that what this appears to be." Doc Robbins insisted.

"I have it!" Hodges yelled down the hall, his fists triumphantly in the air.

"A sexually transmitted disease?" Henry asked. Hodges glared at him, punching his shoulder. Nick laughed, despite how serious the situation was for Greg and Sara.

"No… I narrowed down the search area for Agent Ryan based on the trace from all three bodies." Hodges said. Agent Ryan, D.B., Finn, Nick, Catherine and Grissom all crowded around Hodges.

"Well, out with it then!" Catherine said.

"It would have to be this meat processing facility. It's next to a lumber warehouse, with explains the wood trace on the mummies. I found the same trace in Donald Anderson's car." Hodges explained.

"We confirmed that Donald's car was the one he used to transport Greg and Sara because the blood on the backseat was Greg's and the hair we found belonged to Sara." Morgan said.

"So… a timeline of events. First, Eater murdered and made a meal out of Owen Linder, Colleen Waring and Justin Burns for narrowing the prey pool in the vore community. He must have done this almost a year ago and dumped the bodies somewhere remote in Red Rock Canyon. When they began doing road improvements in that area, he panicked and moved the bodies, which had mummified in the dry desert conditions. He dumped them in the meat processing facility next to a lumber warehouse, where we found them. Meanwhile, Chad Burns was investigating his brother's disappearance. He set up a meeting with Eater and was killed." Catherine said. She wrote down the timeline of events on a white board for everyone to see.

"In the months between the deaths of Colleen, Justin and Owen, Eater met and maintained a predator/prey relationship with Donald Anderson, a blogger who works from home." Agent Ryan said, adding that detail into the time line.

"Right, and three weeks ago, Donald Anderson suffered a heart attack, probably at home, and died. Rather than explain the wounds all over his skin, Eater wrapped him up in a tarp and left him in the trunk of Donald's car." Grissom added.

"Eater must have been living in Donald's house with him when he died, so he continued to stay there, knowing that people wouldn't miss him for a while since he didn't leave home often. Then, we tracked Donald down and Greg and Sara showed up and the rest…" Catherine said quietly, "…is hopefully not history."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 **Author's Note: The song I'm referencing in this chapter is called 'Kill of the Night' by Gin Wigmore. It's on YouTube and I highly recommend listening to it while you read the chapter to get a sense of the mood. Also, this is the final chapter of the story. I hope you enjoy it!**

Greg was having a difficult time focusing on anything. Eater moved around the room. He plugged a speaker into his laptop and turned on music.

"What music is this?" Greg wondered.

Eater smiled at the two of them. "Some of my favorite songs that I think are appropriate for dinner, for our time together." Greg didn't recognize the song, but he knew it was a woman singing. Her voice echoed off the walls and he could pick out some of the words.

"My cold desire…to hear…the boom boom boom of your heart?" He asked. Eater smiled at him and Greg shrank back.

"Don't worry, I'll have another taste of you later. Right now, I'm interested in the appetizer." He got up and moved towards Sara, who shrank back. He opened another wine bottle and poured more of it out.

"Wait! Why…did you remove their organs?" Sara asked. Eater stopped pouring the wine and studied her.

"Why do you think?"

"To eat them…" She whispered back. He nodded and went back to pouring the wine.

"I'll probably let you keep your organs, sweetheart. I don't know about him, though." He pointed at Greg, who shrank down into the chair as far as he could. He forced fed Sara the wine, again. She gagged on it, wanting to throw it back up. Once he'd given her the amount he considered appropriate, he put the glass back on the table.

"Now it's your turn." He said, pulling out the knife.

"No, wait…what if I AHHHHHH!" Sara screamed, thrashing in the chair. The pain was beyond anything she could imagine. She couldn't think as the knife burned its way across her skin. When he'd sliced the skin away, Sara felt lightheaded and nauseous again.

"SARA!" She jerked her head up to see Greg staring at her, his dark eyes wide with concern. She couldn't help it, tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Think of someone else. Think of someone you love." Greg said firmly. Sara's vision tunneled into darkness as an image of Gil's face floated up and into the tiny pinprick of light left visible before passing out.

~XXXXX~

Agent Ryan used Hodges information to find the exact meat processing facility in the abandoned complex of industrial buildings on the north side of town. The facility itself was still quite large, but it was more than they had before. She contacted Sheriff Ecklie, Captain Brass and Detective Crawford and notified them about the location. Catherine, Gil, Nick, Morgan, Finn and D.B. all went to the police department so they could arrive together. Agent Ryan stayed behind to contact her department back at Quantico about the progress they made.

They agreed that no sirens would be best. No one wanted to attract his attention and cause him to make a hasty decision to kill either Greg or Sara. So when the police and the CSIs arrived at the large, abandoned facility, no sirens were blaring. They drove silently around the perimeter, positioning police cars at each potential entrance and exit to block Eater in.

Nick suggested they use a thermal camera to detect the heat signatures of people, to make sure they entered at Eater's exact location. They didn't want to waste precious time wandering around the massive building, trying to find the right room or corner, while Eater continued to harm their friends.

As Nick swept the building with the thermal camera, Gil moved to stand next to Morgan. He felt protective of her and he knew that if he had a daughter, this is what he would feel. _I have to find a way to stay here in Vegas. I can't let Sara and my friends slip through my fingers again,_ he thought.

Nick made a silent motion with his hands, indicating a back corner of the building. The officers went ahead of the CSIs, their guns drawn. They found a doorway into the building and went in one at a time until all the officers and CSIs had successfully entered the building. They fanned out in a V shaped formation and moved towards the heat signatures Nick saw on the thermal camera. Catherine led the CSIs forward, with Nick and Finn just behind her. D.B. and Morgan were in the back, and Gil positioned himself off to the side near Morgan.

They paused silently behind the police, who were silently communicating how they planned to enter the room when they heard an earsplitting shriek come from the room ahead of them.

"Leave him ALONE!" They heard Sara scream. Loud thrashing noises and cries could be heard. Morgan jerked forward, but Gil held out his arm.

"NO!" They heard Greg scream loudly. "I'm going to KILL YOU!" Greg roared, sounding angrier than any of them had ever heard. They heard laughter, sinister and low, echoing over the walls.

"Go!" Brass hissed, stepping back. The officers flooded the room, aiming their weapons.

"Step away from the chair and put your hands in the air!" Detective Crawford yelled. The CSI's quickly followed the officers into the room, positing themselves in the small gaps between each officer, aiming their guns at Eater. Gil was horrified by what he saw in the room. Sara was pale and crying, blood running down her arms. Vomit was on the floor at her feet and she was shaking violently.

Greg didn't look much better. He had a bloody lip, dried blood all over his shoulders and blood coming from his arm. His face was flushed with anger and he was using what remained of his strength to try to free himself from his restraints. Eater turned to glare at the officers and the CSIs.

"Step away from the chairs and put your hands up where we can see them!" Detective Crawford yelled. Eater tilted his head as if the command confused him. He walked slowly towards Sara, his hands out and visible. He was holding the knife he'd been using to cut them.

"How rude. I haven't finished my _meal_." He said calmly. He reacted quickly, swinging his arm wide and slicing Sara's other arm. She shrieked in pain. Greg jerked violently in his chair and broke through one of the restraints, freeing his good arm.

"Stop IT!" He yelled. Eater looked at him in surprise.

"You are quite a strong young man, aren't you?" He smiled and licked his lips.

"This is your last warning! Drop the knife and step away from the chairs!" Detective Crawford yelled. Eater was too close to Greg and Sara; if any of the officers fired and missed, a stray bullet may hit one of the CSIs. No one wanted that on their conscience. Eater drifted closer to Sara, holding the knife out as if he were going to drop it.

"Maybe you'll just have to kill me, then. Perhaps I won't go gentle into that good night, hmm?" Eater said, scanning the room. Gil noticed that the light on the camera was blinking. This was being broadcast live over the internet!

"He's playing us because he wants a show for his fans!" Gil said, indicating the camera. Eater smiled at him.

"Indeed, a clever man among dull witted rocks." Eater said with delight in his voice. He lifted his hand with the knife in it as if he were going to stab himself in a final act of cowardice. He paused for effect and then brought the knife down to stab Sara in the chest.

"NO!" Greg screamed at the same time a gun went off. Eater roared in pain and fell sideways, clutching his knee, which had quite literally exploded. Everyone turned to stare at Gil, who was calmly pointing his gun at Eater.

"What have you DONE?!" Eater moaned, clutching his knee, unable to get up on his own. Gil holstered his gun and Detective Crawford jumped forward to kick the knife out of Eater's reach. The officers hauled him up despite his wails of pain and cuffed him. D.B. darted forward and turned the cameras off, unplugging the equipment and switching off the generator.

"I need a medic. We have two officers who need to be transported to the hospital for blood loss and knife wounds. Also, an asshole with a GSW to the knee." Brass said over the radio. They hauled Eater out of the room as he cried out in pain. Gil started shaking in surprise. He'd fired a gun, sure, but never really at a person. Never to actually hit them with the goal of maiming or harming them in any way. He'd only acted in self-defense, never as the aggressor.

He was frozen to the spot as he watched Morgan rush forward and yank Greg's restraints off of him. He ran forward to Sara, focused only on her as he pulled her restraints off. She smiled, tears still staining her cheeks. He grabbed her face in his hands.

"I've never shot anyone like that before. I don't know what came over me." He said.

"I would hope I came over you." Sara replied with a small smirk. That trademark smirk of hers that he loved so much.

"Yes, you came over me. I want to do this again but I don't want to hurt you." He said softly as he heard sirens wailing in the distance.

"Maybe…we can talk. Later?" Sara asked. Gil nodded. They turned to look at Greg and Morgan. Morgan was hugging Greg desperately and crying into his chest. He patted her and was murmuring soothing words.

"No, don't you get it Greg Sanders?" Morgan cried, pulling away.

"What?" Greg wondered. He looked confused.

"I love you, you…. Beautiful, wonderful man!" She swatted him on the arm and grabbed his face, planting a kiss on his mouth right in front of everyone; the other officers, their colleagues from the lab and the paramedics rushing in to take them to the hospital. Greg leaned into the kiss, unable to wrap his damaged arm around Morgan. Gil looked down at Sara, who was smiling. She sat back weakly.

"If it didn't hurt so much, I'd probably be clapping right now. It's about time those two realized they're perfect for each other." She looked up at Gil, who grinned.

~XXXXX~

Greg and Sara were rushed to the hospital. Agent Ryan sent the team a message, confirming Eater's identity as a man named Ernest Wilcox. Knowing his name made him a lot less mysterious and scary to Greg, who sat in his hospital bed with bandages on his arm. They'd given him and Sara skin grafts to cover their wounds with fluids and antibiotics to prevent infections.

They wanted to keep them for a day just to make sure they were okay; they stitched up Greg's wound on the back of his neck and cleaned them up. Morgan sat by his bed, holding his hand.

"I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have waited until something bad happened to tell you." Morgan said. Greg couldn't keep the grin off of his face. He knew he probably looked ridiculous, but he didn't care that much.

"Well, you're a beautiful idiot." Greg said. Morgan laughed. She got up and kissed him again. A knock came at the door and Catherine appeared with Nick.

"How are you doing, Greggo?" Nick asked.

"Better. A lot better." He said, casting a glance at Morgan who smiled.

"Well, we just wanted you to know that now that we have him, the FBI is going to extradite him. He killed a guy in San Diego, so it's a Federal case now." Catherine said. "I'm in charge of transporting him, so I have to leave. I wanted to say goodbye to you two before I left."

She came over and gave Greg a hug and a motherly kiss on the cheek. She hugged Morgan as well.

"I have a good feeling about you two, so don't mess it up or I'll have to a Federal case out of that, too." She said.

"Thank you." Morgan said. Catherine smiled sadly, turning to give them one last wave before leaving the room.

"What about you, Nick, do you get to stay?" Greg asked.

"No, man. I have a lab to get back too. They're falling apart without me." Nick gave them both hugs before he left as well. Morgan took Greg's hand in hers and leaned against his bed. He sighed and rested his face on her hair, inhaling its sweet scent with a smile.

"I wish they didn't have to leave." Morgan said sadly. "Do you think Grissom will leave?"

"I don't know." They were silent for a while and Greg turned his head to look down at Morgan. She smiled up at him.

"I'm an idiot for waiting this long." Greg said.

"Then I'm an idiot too, for not saying anything sooner." Morgan said.

This time, he brought his hand to her face and pulled her into the kiss.

~XXXXX~

*2 Weeks Later*

"I know this is a big change, but I'm confident that you will all get along well with your new supervisor." D.B. told the CSIs in the break room. They all looked shell-shocked. D.B. was leaving them to work for the FBI Cyber Division! After everything they'd been through, he was going to leave?

He explained the opportunity to them and said he couldn't pass it up. Agent Ryan needed to expand her team and she wanted him to work with her.

"When do we meet the new boss?" Finn asked. Sara stared down at the table. She didn't want to act as though she was too upset about D.B. leaving, but it seemed as if the supervisor never lasted very long.

"Right now, actually. He's in my office, let me go get him." D.B. left the room. Finn nudged Sara's arm.

"So…you and Gil. What happened?"

"We talked a little, but he left again when Catherine left too." Sara said. "He said he had to take care of some things."

"I'm sorry. I thought something would come of it." Finn said.

"Me too." Sara muttered, angry with herself for allowing her emotions to run away with her again. When was she going to learn to not get her hopes up?

"Ahem. Meet your new supervisor, Gil Grissom." Sara tore her eyes away from the table to see Grissom standing in the doorway with a huge smile on his face.

"Gil?" Sara said, jumping up out of her chair without realizing it.

"Yes, Sara. I'm back." Greg smiled and elbowed Morgan who high-fived Finn.

Sara darted forward to wrap her arms around Grissom in a massive hug. He chuckled and whispered in her ear.

"So…how about a date this Friday, hmmm?"

"Yes. Most definitely yes."

 _The End_

 **Author's Note: Obviously, this is the best case scenario for everyone. I'm hoping that by having Ted Danson move to CSI: Cyber that the writers are purposefully leaving the supervisor position open so that Grissom can return to it and permanently reunite him with Sara. Plus, I had to put Morganders in there since they're my first love. I recently found out through some spoilers that some of the characters won't be included in the finale, which makes me sad, but… I'm still curious about how it's all going to go down.**


End file.
